Menards targeted in patent lawsuit

An article in the Business Journal of Milwaukee reported that Menards is being sued by a masonry block manufacturer for copying its landscaping products.

The patent infringement lawsuit, filed by Anchor Block Co. in a Minneapolis U.S. District Court, alleges that Menard Inc. copied the company’s Anchor Wall Systems, which uses blocks that lock into place without mortar.

According to the suit, Menard recently stopped buying the Anchor products and instead sold blocks made by Menard subsidiary Midwest Manufacturing under the brand names Winfield and Denver.

Anchor filed the suit after spotting photos of Anchor blocks in Menards fliers advertising the store-brand products. The photos were from Anchor's promotional materials, the lawsuit said.

Doug Strawbridge, president and general counsel of Anchor Wall Systems, told the newspaper that his company and Menards had been doing business for more than two decades. A patent on the block design of Anchor Wall Systems expired in October, Strawbridge said, but another covering the manufacturing process is still valid.